Christian Bartolf's Comments

When I was in India this September (13 to 28), I visited National Gandhi Museum, Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti (Gandhi Darshan, Rajghat, and Birla House), Gandhi Peace Foundation, Gandhi Smarak Nidhi again, and I was invited to give lectures on Gandhi and showed multi-media presentations on Tolstoy, Gandhi and King for many students at Indian Business Academy (Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, and Bangalore, Karnataka) and Gautama Buddha University (Greater Noida, Uttarpradesh). Mahalia Jackson's "Down By The Riverside" was received enthusiastically by the students. During these presentations and a conference on "New Horizons of Human Development: Art, Spirituality and Social Transformations", invited by Dr. Ananta Kumar Giri (Chennai) and Dr. Subhash Sharma, Dean, Indian Business Academy (Greater Noida), I quoted extensively Dr. King jr.'s statement after his visit to India. Without Clay's book I would not have been in the position to do so. My suggestion to my hosts and explicitly to Dr. Varsha Das (Director), National Gandhi Museum, New Delhi, was to celebrate the Kings' visit to India in February/March 2009 after 50 years. Then I learned about Clay's 2008 lecture tour - so glad about this - thank you !

Now I prepare a small exhibition on "Martin Luther King for his 80th birth anniversary - "I Have A Dream" as joint project of Gandhi Information Center http://home.snafu.de/mkgandhi and Anti-War-Museum http://www.anti-kriegs-museum.de/english/start1.html in Berlin for opening at 15 January 2009 (the third joint exhibition project after one on Gandhi January to April 2008 and Tolstoy November 2008 to January 2009). My idea is to add a fourth exhibition on Henry David Thoreau for summer 2009. You find the one on Gandhi on the Gandhi Information's Center's website: http://home.snafu.de/mkgandhi/eng/exhibitions.htm - we try to publish these exhibitions in German and English languages. Both societies for education are non-profit.

Just to inform you about my activities and projects in Berlin these years 2008 and 2009, wishing all the best for the commemoration next year,
Christian Bartolf